What’s happening in the Somerset West Village Garden this May?
Located at 41 New Street, Somerset West Village Garden (SWVG) is a community project that grows and provides vegetables for the homeless and unemployed. Since its inception in 2015, it has, however, become so much more… it is now the green heart of Somerset West.
Jenny Findlay, SWVG founder and Di Irish, SWVG committee member, share a monthly update here on the blog, telling us more about what’s happening in the garden and what we can expect to stock up on at weekly harvest days. This month is extra special for gardeners everywhere, as we celebrate World Bee Day on 20 May.
It is Autumn and we are very busy planting our winter crops. Hennie Paulse, our foreman, has spent many hours making good rich compost which we use in the vegetable beds. We also add biological products from Andermatt. With this wonderful combination, plus some BioOcean from Atlantic Fertiliser, we are confident that our seedlings will get all the nutrients they need to produce bumper crops.
We have been planting onion, spring onions, all the cruciferous vegetables like cabbage, broccoli, black kale, cauliflower, baby cabbage, cabbage, as well as broad beans and peas. Celery, parsnip, turnips and kohlrabi have also been sown and our lovely lettuce seedlings are just about ready to be planted out. Our Broccoli plants are growing beautifully and should start producing in the next two weeks.
We have sown edible flowers, which we include in our salad packs, and of course, these colourful flowers also attract bees to the garden.
The decline in bee populations worldwide is concerning, so it is important to plant flowers to attract them to the vegetable garden for pollinating.
Creating a bee-friendly garden helps with the overall health and biodiversity of the environment and will help to reverse declining populations. Why not plant some flowers in your own garden to celebrate World Bee Day with us on 20 May?
At SWVG we also grow borage which attracts these little pollinators as the pretty blue flowers provide nectar and pollen. We allow our herbs to flower which is a good source of the above , especially in late autumn, when there aren’t many other flowers about.
As we are an organic garden, we plant various flowers that help with our pest control. Marigolds, Wild Garlic, Nasturtiums and Calendula work well to deter pests but are a good source of nectar and pollen for bees.
Every Tuesday, we hold our market from 09:00-11:00, here we sell our freshly picked, organic produce. Vegetables now in season are cauliflower, kale, spinach, carrots, beetroot and spring onions.
You are welcome to visit the garden to see what we are doing. We are open Monday – Friday from 09:00-12:00 when there will be somebody to show you around.
